Reviews with content warning for Rape - Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy

This book is a "Hit or miss". Some of the stories are awesome and I'd read them again, others just read like bad fanfiction and made me wonder why they were selected and published...

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junepetals's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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its_madi's review against another edition

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dark funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

The way I rate short story collections is that I take the average of all the stories in the book.

-The Blood of Imuriv- Renée Ahdieh-3/5
The Evil Vaccine: Keep the Darkness at Bay-Christine Riccio-2/5

This felt like a small part of a much bigger story. It made the story’s ending feel a little incomplete, but the set up was good and interesting. The piece at the end was funny, but it wasn’t that funny. Most of the humor wasn’t laugh out loud.

-Jack-Ameriie-5/5
Giants and Tyrants-Tina Burke-1/5

This was an amazingly paced short story, that started as a funny rom-com type, and quickly turned to horror. I loved it. But Giants and Tyrants was just very boring to me. I could barely get through it and it was only a page long.

Gwen and Art and Lance-Soman Chainani-1/5
The Bad Girl Hall of Fame-Samantha Lane-2/5

Didn’t really have a villain, just a vaguely mean girl antagonist that does petty things until she gets her way. I was expecting more wicked villains and not petty villains. The essay was a bit boring like the last one, but it was in a fun format and I was able to get through it.

Shirley and Jim-Susan Dennard-1.5/5
Dear Sasha, The 411 for Villains-Sasha Alsberg-3/5

Just like the last one, no one is really evil on screen, it just mentions something that the villain did off screen. It gets an extra .5 because it is Sherlock based, and that’s neat. The villain help column at the end was cool, but the last one was just...weird. I don’t know. I didn’t like it.

The Blessing of Little Wants-Sarah Enni-3/5
Will the Real Villain Please Stand Up?-Sophia Lee-3/5

Like The Blood of Imuriv it seemed like a small part of a larger story. The ending was also really confusing, but that could’ve easily been me being big dumb. The essay was the best commentary style we’d gotten so far.

The Sea Witch-Marissa Meyer-5/5
Villain or Hero? You Decide!- Zoë Herdt-4/5

Well-paced short story that includes a lot of information in a short amount of time. The essay was a nice mix of fun stuff and commentary, but I think the “Are you evil” quiz would've been better if it had been funnier.

Beautiful Venom-Cindy Pon-5/5
Without the Evil in the World, How Do We See the Good?-Benjamin Anderson-5/5

TW: rape

Really creative take on the Medusa myth. Made a pretty well known tale seem exciting,

wish that the fight at the end was a little bit longer, but really the story is fine without it.

It also was a pretty good commentary on victim blaming. The essay was a commentary on the story, but he gave personal opinions on his favorite parts and characters and lines, which made it much more interesting to read.

Death Knell-Victoria Schwab-5/5
Dear Death-Jesse George-4/5

It’s not exactly a VILLAINOUS story, but it is a good morally ambiguous story. Schwab has always been good at writing fiction with a morally ambiguous MC.

I’m also weak for the cheating death trope.

The essay was a heartfelt letter to death. It was really emotionally written, and referenced to death like it was in the story, and yes I almost cried in public.

Marigold-Samantha Shannon-4.5/5
Evil Revealed- Regan Perusse-4/5

I don’t have much to say about it. It was just a simple story about faeries. Reminded me of fall, so that was nice. I also didn’t have much to say about the essay, it was just a simple commentary on the story.

You, You, It’s All About You-Adam Silvera-5/5
Behind the Villain's Mask-Catriona Feeney-4/5

I thought it was a fun story about crime. I loved that it used 2nd person POV, because I don’t see that much. The piece at the end was nice, but the quiz at the end was a little out of place.

Julian Breaks Every Rule- Andrew Smith-3.5/5
Julian Powell: Teen Psycho Extraordinaire-Raeleen Lemay-5/5

The villain never does anything villainous, it just mentions something he’s going to do. Plus, the prompt is “a psychopath in a futuristic setting”. Unless I’m missing some big details, it wasn’t very futuristic. But he does have an interesting POV to read from. The humor in this book is pretty great and breaks the 4th wall, which I love. But if I have to read the word “foreshadowing” one more time, I’m going to lose my mind. Lemay’s part was like Without the Evil in the World, How Do We See the Good?, in which the author shared some of their favorite parts.

Indigo and Shade-April Genevieve Tucholke-3/5
Glamorized Recovery: Expectations Vs. Reality-Whitney Atkinson-2/5

I don’t think they spent enough time with the characters’ relationship, because I didn’t care about the big emotional moment. And I guessed the plot twist from a mile away. I also don’t think that this book followed the prompt that well, but I guess if you squint it does. And I really didn’t care for the essay. It just existed.

Sera-Nicola Yoon-5/5
The Bad Girls’ Guide to Villainy-Kat Kennedy and Steph Sinclair-4/5

I loved seeing the progression of Sera growing up and using her powers. It was really unsettling and really well done. And the piece at the end may not have been the self confidence speech I wanted, but it was the self confidence speech I needed. It was funny and entertaining, and a bit inspirational not gonna lie.

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Overall, I think it was a pretty decent collection storywise. It started off a little rocky, except for <i>Jack</i>, and I wasn’t sure where it was going. But the further you got the better they were. My favorite story was definitely Death Knell, but Beautiful Venom and Sera were good too.

The booktuber essays/commentaries/other (not really sure what to call them) were a mixed bag. I ended up feeling just sort of passive about them, and you could definitely read this book and skip these, and not miss much. But I did really like Dear Death, Bad Girls Guide, and Without the Evil in the World.

3/5

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The Blood of Imuriv- 3/5
The Evil Vaccine- 2/5
Jack- 5/5
Giants and Tyrants- 1/5
Gwen and Art and Lance- 1/5
Bad Girl Hall of Fame- 2/5
Shirley and Jim-1.5/5
Dear Sasha- 3/5
The Blessing of Little Wants-3/5
Will the Real Villain, Please Stand Up-3/5
The Sea Witch-5/5
Villain or Hero? You Decide!-4/5
Beautiful Venom-5/5
Without the Evil in the World, How Do We See the Good-5/5
Death Knell-5/5
Dear Death-4/5
Marigold-4.5/5
Evil Revealed-4/5
You, You, It’s All About You-5/5
Behind the Villain's Mask-4/5
Julian Breaks Every Rule-3.5/5
Julian Powell:Teen Psycho Extraordinaire-5/5
Indigo and Shade-3/5
Glamorized Recovery: Expectations Vs. Reality-2/5
Sera-5/5
The Bad Girls’ Guide to Villainy-4/5

Average Rating: 3.5

Content Warnings

victorianrogue's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny medium-paced

3.0

Content Warnings

abigailnoack's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

This whole anthology was a mess to me. I am a victim of buying it during the peak of my book tube phase a few years ago, despite not having a whole lot of personal interest in the anthology. My reading tastes have also changed a lot since buying this book: I barely read fantasy anymore, let alone, villain focused stories.

Also, I know there’s a lot of people who don’t support this anthology because they think the booktubers and bloggers didn’t “deserve” to be published in this anthology, and I don’t really agree with that stance. I know a lot of people have blogs or booktube channels as readers and it’s super natural for readers to want to be writers. However, in the specific case of this anthology, the booktubers didn’t really contribute to the stories aside from the prompts. They each wrote a short commentary, essay piece or had to analyze something in the story, and a lot of them were very cheap and cheesy, or high school magazine quiz style or like a middle school book report. So yeah, it felt like a money grab, which it totally was for me; I never would have bought this without some of my favourite booktubers names not the cover.

To be honest, I did not read all the stories, as I have done in the past with anthologies. I had originally planned to read them all, but felt disappointed and disconnected after reading a few stories, that I then decided to only read stories from authors I thought I would like/have read before. Most of them just weren’t very memorable to me, so I didn’t bother giving individual ratings, or in-depth reviews for each story.

The standout story to me was Death Knell by Victoria Schwab with Jesse George. I’m not very familiar with greek mythology at all, but I really enjoyed her writing style. It was very vivid to picture in my head and gave off a strong feeling. (This is also my first time reading Schwab). I also felt that Jesse’s personal letter to death after the story was the only booktuber contribution that actually meant something to me. It was deep and fit the feeling of the story it went along with.

Stories I Did Read:
The Blood of Imuriv by Renee Ahdieh with Christine Riccio

Jack by Ameriie with Tina Burke
->I don’t think that Jack in the beanstalk is cool??

Gwen and Art and Lance by Soman Chainani with Samantha Lane
->Told entirely in text messages and usually I love that, but this was genuinely hard to keep track of and was pretty much just 30 pages of petty high school drama

Shirley & Jim by Susan Dennard with Sasha Alsberg
->I just don’t know anything about Sherlock stuff so I wasn’t interested

The Sea Witch by Marissa Meyer with Zoe Herdt
->I actually really liked the concept for this story, once I figured out what was going on. Marissa Meyer does a great job of establishing a plot and motives and characters in a short time.

You, You, It’s All About You by Adam Silvera with Catriona Feeney
->This one was also kind of a cool concept but I just wasn’t invested

Sera by Nicola Yoon with Steph Sinclair and Kat Kennedy
->This one was legitimately disturbing but the pacing and flashbacks were weird

Stories I Didn’t Read:

The Blessing of Little Wants by Sarah Enni with Sophia Lee
Beautiful Venom by Cindy Bon with Benjamin Alderson
Marigold by Samantha Shannon with Regan Perusse
Julian Breaks Every Rule by Andrew Smith with Raeleen Lemay
Indigo and Shade by April Genevieve Tucholke with Whitney Atkinson

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